How to Play Reversi
Reversi — also known as Othello — is a two-player strategy game played on an 8×8 board with 64 double-sided discs, black on one face and white on the other. It takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master: every disc on the board can change colour until the very last move.
Game Rules
- The board: 8×8 squares, 64 discs. Each disc is black on one side and white on the other.
- Setup: four discs start in the centre — black on d5 and e4, white on d4 and e5. Black moves first.
- Making a move: place a disc so that it outflanks one or more of your opponent's discs — that is, so a straight line (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) of opponent discs is bracketed between your new disc and another disc of your colour. Every bracketed disc flips to your colour.
- A move must flip: if a square would flip nothing, you may not play there. Empty is not enough.
- Passing is forced: if you have no legal move, your turn is skipped automatically. You may never choose to pass when a legal move exists.
- The game ends when neither player can move — usually because the board is full, but sometimes earlier.
Scoring
- Count the discs. The player with more discs wins.
- If the game ends before the board is full, every empty square is credited to the winner. The two scores therefore always add up to 64 — a 33–31 finish on a full board, or 40–24 for a game that ended with 7 squares empty.
- Equal discs is a draw. Any empty squares are shared equally, so a draw is always recorded as 32–32.
- If a player loses every disc, the game ends immediately and the score is 64–0 — a wipeout.
Strategy
- Corners are forever: a disc on a1, h1, a8 or h8 can never be flipped. Corners are the single most valuable squares.
- Beware the squares next to an empty corner: b2, g2, b7 and g7 (the X-squares) hand the corner to your opponent. The edge squares beside a corner (the C-squares) are nearly as risky.
- Fewer discs is often better: in the opening and middlegame, having fewer discs usually means more options later. Play for mobility — the number of legal moves you have — not for the disc count.
- Squeeze your opponent: if you can reduce them to a single legal move, you effectively choose their move for them. Forcing them to pass is even stronger.
- Build stable discs: discs anchored to a corner along a full edge can never flip. Those are the ones that actually count at the end.
- Think about the last move: whoever plays into the final empty region usually gains from it. Counting the parity of empty squares matters in the endgame.
Notation
Squares are named by file (a–h, left to right) and rank (1–8, top to bottom), so the top-left square is a1 and the bottom-right is h8. Black's four opening moves are d3, c4, f5 and e6.
What is XOT?
XOT is standard Reversi that begins from a balanced, randomly chosen 8-move opening instead of the usual starting position. Everything after that follows exactly the same rules.
- Every game starts from a different position, so memorised opening lines give no advantage.
- The openings are pre-selected so that neither side begins with an edge.
- It is a favourite format among strong players precisely because it rewards understanding over preparation.
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